


Mamma Mia

by MermaidsandMermen (SophiaSoames)



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: #skamficweek, A Pinch of Angst, Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Childhood Friends, Coming of Age, Day 5, Evak - Freeform, Happy endings all round, IKEA, M/M, References to ABBA, SKAM Fic Week, SkamFicWeek, Work collegues AU, fluff fluff fluff, lifelong crushes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-16 20:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11836680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiaSoames/pseuds/MermaidsandMermen
Summary: The workmates AU for day 5 of Skam Fic Week. And it had to be IKEA, and it had to be Evak, and it has to be ABBA. Of course. A tiny bit of Sweden in the middle of Oslo.This story was prompted by Smyonlyone on AO3, a beautiful idea that I might have to explore further when the urge comes on. Thank you so much for trusting me with your prompt and I hope you like what I created with it.Thank you to EVAK4EVER and EVAKKK for editing, proofreading and bouncing ideas with me. You girls rock.





	Mamma Mia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smyonlyone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smyonlyone/gifts).



‘’Mamma Mia, here I go again  
My my, how can I resist you?  
Mamma Mia, does it show again  
My my, just how much I've missed yooooouuuu!!’’ 

I sing the last line right up in Isak’s face, making him laugh and swat his hands at me. He is casually leaning against the counter, just standing there in his yellow and blue tennis tee and those ugly uniform cargo trousers and his name tag with ‘’ISAK’’ that is always crooked, which drives me mad. I just have to reach out and detach it so I can pin it back on his chest, straight this time. 

‘’Yes, I've been broken-hearted  
Blue since the day we parted  
Why, why did I ever let you go?  
Mamma mia, now I really know  
My my, I could never let you go.’’

I wail the lyrics into thin air as I grab his hands and try to get him to dance with me, right there behind the counter as the rest of the people manning IKEA Oslo’s Customer Service desk shake their heads and go back to checking their phones and chatting. Isak just laughs, and throws a pen at me - that misses. Of course. He is so fucking cute. I can’t believe he is back in my life. I can’t believe how much I missed him. He jumps up on the counter and just sits there, letting his long legs just casually hang, his feet crossed.

‘’Just one look and I can hear a bell ring  
One more look and I forget everything.’’

I mouth the words to him, arching my eyebrows and giving him a wink as I curl around myself and roll my eyes in my amateur dramatic dance moves. I can’t dance. I don’t give a fuck. He still laughs at me. Sticks his tongue out at me as he folds his arms over his chest, looking at me like he is saying: ‘’Even? Really?’’

‘’Bye bye, leave me now or never  
Mamma mia, it's a game we play  
Bye bye doesn't mean forever’’

I finish off on my knees below him, with my arms straight out to my sides, and my head thrown back and he looks over his shoulder in second hand embarrassment. I know I am over the top. I know I am a complete nutcase. I don’t fucking care. Not with Isak here to laugh with. To mess with.

 

I didn’t expect this summer to be anything special, the last summer before my last year of Uni. The last worry-free summer, with no pressure of having to find a job and start a career.  
I worked here last summer as well, and we were a good team. Mostly Swedes coming over the border to earn big bucks for a few weeks whilst slumming it in a shared hytte in the hills and getting eaten alive by mozzies whilst living off cheap noodles and putting every krona away for whatever they are saving up for. It’s the same this year. This job is OK, just dealing with people, fiddling around with a juvenile computer system and putting things in the right bloody bin for disposal and restocking. The people are cool, A bunch of Swedes, a few uni students like myself and then there is Isak.

I have known Isak since he was a little skinny squirt that used to hang around being an annoying little twat whenever I hung out with Lukas, his older brother. We used to give him shit, tease and taunt him, but he was always there. Sitting in the background, just hoping to be included. Always shy, hiding, then if you spoke to him he would just burst into this massive smile like you had made his day. 

I always made a point of saying hello. Giving him a little hug. A high five. ‘’Howzit going little squirt?’’ kind of things. I don’t have siblings, so Isak was like the little brother I never had but always wanted. And he adored me, in the way little brothers do. I mean he fucking worshipped Lukas, but he looked at me differently. Like his face would shine when I was around. And he was always so cute. Isak had always been fucking cute.

I fell out with Lukas when we hit 18, over something we probably both would struggle to explain if you asked us today, and we drifted apart, went to different schools and life just moved on. I moved on. I figured shit out. I grew up. I thought about Isak sometimes, wondering if life had been kind to him. I saw Lukas from time to time, but I never saw Isak again. The little squirt. My little squirt. 

Not until 2 weeks ago when this dude turns up on my shift with his mop of curls and smile that alone could power half of Oslo. He just stood there one day. Right in front of me, saying ‘’Hi I’m Isak. I don’t know if you remember me but I’m Lukas’ little brother.’’

Like I could forget. I just stood there staring at him wondering what the hell happened to the little squirt, because the man in front of me is nothing, and I mean that, he is nothing like the Isak I remember. 

I’m honest about my sexuality these days. and everyone knows that I am an equal opportunities kind of guy, and that my dick and I have an understanding when it comes to sex. I have shagged girls. I have shagged boys. I just haven’t fallen in love yet. 

Yet I think I knew there and then, that first day when Isak leaned over and wrapped me up in a hug, that life as I knew it was over. 

Because Isak is still my little squirt. Despite the muscles that enfold his arms, his prominent chest and those nipples that show under the cheap fabric of his IKEA uniform, the taut stomach, and that tackle that he is packing in those trousers. He may be all grown up and deep voiced and all MAN, but he still makes me want to fold him into my arms and hold him and never let him go. 

Which is ridiculous. Because Isak has no interest in me that way. 

‘’Even, you are so fucking extra!’’ Isak laughs. ‘’We have customers dude, press your button and serve these poor people!’’ He is waving his arm towards the bored looking man standing there holding a curtain pole and a ticket, whilst I do another twirl and mime along to the godawful tape that runs on repeat over the store public address system throughout the day. 

‘’Torture Music’’ Isak laughs. ‘’It’s even worse when you sing along to it.’’ 

He jumps down off the counter and grabs the curtain pole off the customer whilst I process the refund. I hand the man the receipt with a smile and scan the area around Customer Services, Spare parts and Returns. 

It’s slow. So fucking slow. Thursday afternoon, just after 3 when the lunch crowd has left and the after-work crowd haven’t made it in yet. So, we just stand around chatting, pretending to tidy shit away when we don’t and I am just sneaking glances at Isak. 

‘’Do you remember when I used to bribe you so you would play Xbox with me? ‘’ His eyes are all crinkly with laughter.

‘’Yeah, you used to make us snacks, really messy sandwiches and sneak out your parent’s posh crisps, then just stand there and taunt us with them until I would let you play. You were fucking cute.’’

‘’Cute’’ He sighs. ‘’ I didn’t want to be cute. I wanted to be cool like you guys.’’

‘’I remember when you were trying to be cool. You remember when we let you drink beer with us? You threw up all over me.’’

‘’I was 14!! You shouldn’t have let me drink so much. Bloody hell. But you were sweet, you held my hair back when I was throwing up and then I slept on your lap for the rest of the evening, and you didn’t even mind. Just stroked my hair and made me drink water. I remember that.’’

‘’Do you remember when I hooked up with that girl? And you got so angry at me and wouldn’t leave us alone. Kept throwing pillows at us. Best cock-blocker in history. She went home and I was so pissed off at you.’’

I laugh at the memory, the triumphant smile on his face when the girl had enough and pissed off home, leaving me angry and frustrated with this idiot of a kid who just beamed at me like I had just offered him the world. ‘’

‘’She wasn’t your type. I was only trying to protect you from something you would have regretted. Come on. She was nothing. Nobody. You woke up in the morning and thanked me.’’

‘’If I remember rightly I woke up in the morning and yelled at you for being a twatty little brat, you have very selective memory Ize. ‘’ He just laughs, throws his head back and winks at me. 

‘’I’ve only got your best interest at heart Even. I always knew what was best for you.’’

He takes another customer and I just stand there. Watching him as he deals with an issue with a missing piece of wood and the customer is very vocal about having a screw that just won’t fit in the intended hole. 

Isak deals with it well, not even a blush creeping across his cheeks. He just smiles and tells the customer that he will give him another pack of screws, and that ‘’one of the screws will no doubt be the right fit for his particular hole.’’ Whilst I am dying with pent up laughter pretending to do something very important at my station. 

I’m not being creepy, I am just being appreciative. Watching how his shoulders move when he laughs. How his Adams-apple moves when he talks. How his lips are just pink and soft and pretty and so damn kissable. 

‘’Even?’’

I land back in reality with a bang. The lips are speaking. To me apparently.

‘’Sorry. Daydreaming. What were you saying?’’

He just laughs, Smiles at me the way only Isak can.

‘’What were you daydreaming about?’’ 

He folds his arms over his chest and leans back against the counter. Just looking at me. He is still smiling and it makes me conscious of my own smile. Because I am grinning at him like an idiot.

‘’I was just thinking about what a little shit you were and how you used to follow me and Lukas around like a shadow.’’ 

He doesn’t stop smiling. He never does. Isak is the smiliest person around when he is here. He is like a little sun in this dull concrete bunker of a work place, making me warm and happy whenever he is near. Which he is now. I can feel my cheeks heat up. A little blush sneaking over my skin. 

‘’I thought you were the coolest person on earth. Lukas did too. He was crushed when the two of you fell out.’’ 

‘’I was fucking destroyed Ize! But Lukas was a dick. And I was an arsehole. We were kids, we didn’t know any better. ‘’

‘’I hated you. Really hated you, for months. I remember screaming at Lukas, shouting that he had to go and apologize so you could be our friend again. I missed you. You just left. You left me behind and I hated you.’’

He doesn’t look at me when he finishes the sentence. Just stands there and chews on the nail on his thumb, almost like he is embarrassed that he spoke.

‘’I’m sorry.’’ I whisper. ‘’I didn’t think. I didn’t think you would miss me, I mean you were only young, and I was just someone Lukas hung out with for a while.’’

I don’t know why we haven’t talked about this before. It just never came up, almost like we didn’t want to start digging in old wounds. Bring up shit that is really fucking important to talk about yet people never do. 

‘’Even, you were Lukas’ best friend. And you were my friend too. How could I not miss you? I get that you and Lukas fought, but you could have come and seen me. I was only a stupid kid but I was still me. Still that kid who worshipped you. ‘’

‘’I wasn’t worthy of any worship Ize. We were kids. We were just kids. ‘’

He looks up at me and my heart is beating out of my chest, as a tear makes its way down his cheek. Just slowly moving down the side of his nose and he wipes it away with an angry jerk of the back of his hand. 

‘’Yeah, I was only a stupid kid. I still mattered Even.’’

‘’You always mattered. You were my little squirt.’’ I can barely get the words out. 

‘’I didn’t matter enough. Not like you mattered to me.’’

He pushes away from the counter, and turns away from me, in time for the customer in front of me to start explaining the broken hinge on the drawer she is carrying. 

I deal with her, casting my eyes over my shoulder to see where he is. Just keeping an eye on his back as he mindlessly shuffles papers around over by his counter. 

He doesn’t speak to me again. Nor does he smile. There is a cloud hanging over our little area and my stomach is full of gravel. I don’t understand what just happened. Well I do. Yet I don’t. 

We work. The queues are gathering momentum and I barely get a minute to catch a glance at him working beside me. Even though he is right beside me I feel like we are miles apart. 

I have loved having him back in my life, and I am not going to lie, I love working with him. He is still so easy to be around. I tease him. Sing to him. Prank him and make him laugh. 

He is still him, underneath all the adult layers that shape him now. He still laughs and leans into me. Let’s his chin rest on my shoulder when he comes up to ask me something. His hand always resting on my arm when he speaks to me. His eyes always sparkling, his skin forming dimples as he talks, and as he breaks into another smile my chest jumps. 

He is not smiling now though, just quietly serving customer after customer beside me. Then he goes on his dinner break and I die a slow death of agony. I give him 5 minutes head start before I behave like a twat and pretty much force one of the Swedes to swap breaks with me so that I can run up to the staff room and see him. I just need to talk to him. Clear the air. Sort out whatever this is that is in his head so we know where we stand. Because I need to know where he is at in his head. I need to know. I need him to know.

The staff room is quiet, just a few people sitting around. No Isak. 

I grab my sandwich from the fridge and head downstairs. If he is not here then he must be outside. He doesn’t smoke, well I don’t think he does, but sometimes if the weather is nice, we sit on the delivery loading docks, letting our feet dangle into thin air whilst the cars mill around in the carpark in front of us. 

There is no one there though. Just a bird pecking at something on the ground and the sun shining weakly through the clouds as I perch myself on the loading bridge and lean back against the wall. 

I haven’t really acknowledged it to myself before but I know he is important to me. I am a little bit in love with this boy that has just popped back into my life like he has always been there. Like he has always belonged to me, and the thought of upsetting him is hurting me. And the thought of him thinking that I didn’t care is devastating. Because I did care, I just didn’t know how to fix it. I didn’t know how to fix shit at 18, and I certainly didn’t know how to deal with a 15-year-old that thought the world of me. 

I didn’t know how to deal with it then, and I fucking don’t know how to deal with it now at 21 with this all grown up 18-year-old that is breaking my heart with a few simple words. 

He is back on the desk when I return and he doesn’t even offer me a quick glance. He just acts like I don’t exist, offering a polite ‘’Excuse me’’ when he needs to pass behind me. 

It kills me that he is hurting. It fucking kills me that he won’t look at me. That he thinks he said too much and laid himself bare and I didn’t say enough. I should have told him that I did care. I should have told him that I do. 

We close up, not a minute too early, not a minute too late. Exchanging high fives and shutting down our terminals in quiet satisfaction. He leaves before I am done and I whine in distress as his back disappears out the back. I hate that he leaves. I hate this. I hate myself a little. I hate myself a lot. 

I slam the keyboard one final time to shut the terminal down and then I make a run for it.  
I run through the back corridor, through the bleak concrete and cheery posters that just form a blur as I pass. I punch out with an angry growl and take a deep breath when I am finally outside. Lean over and let my hands rest on my knees as I let my body settle down. I can see him. He is sat on one of the concrete barriers by the entrance to the carpark, the bleak evening sun playing with the gold in his hair. 

He must have noticed me, but he doesn’t move. Just lets me walk up to him and I sit down and cross my legs underneath me, mirroring his pose. There is a small breeze making his hair move over his forehead, and he wraps his jacket tighter over his uniform tee. 

‘’Ize, Can I ask you something? I need to know. I need to know what this is.’’  
‘’What what is’’ he mutters back. He is hurt. Petulant. Defiant.  
‘’You and me.’’ I whisper. 

I reach out and let my finger trace the skin on the top of his hand, hoping he won’t pull away from me. He doesn’t. He just lets me sit there, as I carefully lace my fingers with his.

‘’Even, I have loved you since I was 12 years old. I can’t change that’’ He takes a deep breath and finally looks at me,’’ And meeting you again, spending time with you at work, hasn’t helped. It hasn’t helped at all. I’m sorry I got all emo on you earlier, but you just do that to me. I am still a stupid kid with a crush on this beautiful boy that doesn’t even know I exist. Well he does, yet he still doesn’t even see me. You never notice. You never see me. You never did. ‘’ 

He looks down again, and lets his other hand tangle with mine. A little sandwich of hands, a stupid little excuse for a touch. 

I try to think of the right things to say. I try to make my mouth speak but I can’t. Whatever comes out of my mouth will be lame and stupid and hurtful, because I have no excuse. I have no explanation for my stupidity. I have no stories to tell, no tales to soothe his hurt. 

Instead I stand up and grab his hands, pulling him up with a steady drag until he stumbles into my embrace. He hasn’t got a choice really. I wrap my body up in his, pushing at his arm so he hugs me back. Properly. My face is buried in his neck, his breath hot on my shoulder. 

‘’I have no words that will make this better Ize. I have nothing I can say except that have feelings for you that I can’t quite explain. That sounds really lame, but you make me feel things. You make me happy, and then today you crushed me and scared me and now I that I have you here where I need you to be, in my arms, I don’t want to let you go.’’ I sound like an idiot, but he holds me tighter, like he wants to crawl under my skin. His arms squeezing my body into his and his lips pressed against the skin on my neck.

‘’I love the way you smell’’ he whispers, and there is a hint of a smile in his voice.  
‘’I love everything about you’’ I whisper back, which makes him laugh as his body jumps in my arms. Just small little giggles making his chest bounce against mine.

He leans back in my embrace, his hand flying up to rub his face in his palm, before curling his arm back around my neck. 

‘’I have thought about this for years, What I would do if I had the chance to tell you how hurt I was, and how angry I was that you never came back to see me. I was going to shout at you. Fucking punch you in the nose.’’ He pauses and laughs a little nervous laugh. ‘’ Then I turned up here and almost had a heart attack when you were standing there. You of all people, had to turn up at my summer job placement. I mean what were the chances?’’

‘’Then you asked me if I remembered you.’’ I laugh softly. He is still looking at me. Letting me look at him. My fingers curling around the back of his neck. 

‘’Yeah, and you called me Squirt. Like I was a still a kid. 

‘’You were always my little Squirt.’’ 

He looks down again. ‘’That makes me feel like I’m 12 years old all over again.’’

‘’You’re not 12. Thank God. You are all gorgeous and handsome and the most beautiful man I have ever seen.’’ I lean in and rest my forehead against his. ‘’And if you don’t believe me, I will sing ABBA songs to you all the way home until you do.’’ 

That makes him laugh. Laugh out loud and wrap his arms tighter around my neck. Relieving a little bit of the heavy tension lacing the air around us. He is so close. His face right in front of me, his eyes dark in the dusky light as his smile fades and his lips open like he wants to speak but he doesn’t. So I speak instead. 

‘’You could have come and seen me you know, you knew where I lived. You could have looked me up. I wouldn’t have been hard to find if you had tried.’’ 

I’m not trying to put the blame on him. I’m not. I’m more trying to supress the shame that is pooling in my guts when I think back at how I behaved. How I let my friends slip so easily from my life. The people who mattered, who loved me. 

‘’I wasn’t sure I would be welcome. You never said I could, and I was too scared you would reject me. This little gay kid with the big crush.’’ 

‘’I never would have, I would never have turned you away.’’

‘’You still did. You shut me out of your life. ‘’

I don’t know how he does it but he twists the knife with every word, because I know he is telling the truth. 

‘’I shut you out so you could live your life Ize. So, you could grow up and come and find me when you were ready. When I was ready. For a long time I didn’t know who I was, I wasn’t comfortable being me, and I wouldn’t have been a good person for you to hang around. But we are here now. You and me. And I think we are ready now. We are good. Aren’t we?’’

‘’Yeah. We’re good.’’ His eyes are sparkling again. A million crinkles forming around them as he smiles at me. 

‘’Ize. If I kissed you, would you punch me in the face?’’ 

I am going for humorous here but my heart is beating like a sledgehammer in my chest. I am about to cross the line. The point of no return. I am about to really show him, who I am, and who he is to me and if this isn’t what he wants then I am truly about to fuck this up. 

‘’I always hoped that you would be my first kiss.’’ He sighs.

‘’And will I?’’ Oh God. Don’t tell me he has never done this before. Please don’t tell me he waited for me all this time.

‘’Nah. Messed around a bit, but nothing that stuck. Nobody was ever you.’’

‘’I know the feeling’’ I laugh back. Relieved maybe. Still nervous as fuck. 

‘’Even. Can I kiss you?’’ 

The way he asks just kills me. There and then. The sincerity in his deep voice. The touch of his fingertips brushing gently over my bottom lip. 

I am holding my breath. I didn’t realize until I let out a desperate gasp, my brain getting dizzy from lack of oxygen. 

He is not smiling anymore. Just brings his other hand up around my face, both thumbs on my cheeks. Quiet little strokes of his fingers as he leans in and my breath hitches again. 

I am expecting softness. Tentative and sweet. I am expecting to have to tease him, for me to push for entry, my tongue prodding against his closed lips. 

Instead he claims me. Fucking kisses me like he means it. All lips and tongue and I freaking can’t breathe. I just hold onto him as he pushes me backwards. I am stumbling under his guidance, his mouth on mine and his hands fisting my hair as I am pulling at his jacket trying to get him closer. Not that he possibly could get any closer to me as he slams me into the concrete wall behind us. His leg is climbing my hip, his chest pressing hard against mine and his tongue is a fucking menace. Stroking and fucking my mouth with that god-damn tongue like he is trying to devour me. Fucking dirty. Hot as hell. 

He comes up for air, just stopping for a second to breathe as I am panting like I have just run a marathon. I need him back. I don’t want him to stop. I just lunge at him, grabbing his shoulders and turning us around so I can slam his back into the wall and get my mouth back where it belongs. On his. In his. My hands roaming over his chest, pushing him. I’m all over him.

My hips are grinding against his crotch now, needy for anything he will give me. Not that we could do anything here, in a deserted carpark in the middle of nowhere. It’s hardly where I want to make him mine. It’s not what we are. We are far too precious for this, too fragile to throw this moment away like it means nothing. Because it means the world to me.

I don’t know how, but it hit’s me there and then. This is when my life truly turns on it’s axis, when things suddenly start to mean something. 

I am thinking that I want to finish uni, work harder than I have ever done before so we can build something, a life together. I want to spend the rest of my life making him smile. I want to figure out how to do this, how to find a home for us, maybe have kids. Grow old, all whilst holding him in my arms and kissing him like this. 

In this moment I want it all, and my brain is in melt down already making clear paths how to make it happen. 

I pull back. Reluctantly, but I need to protect us. Make sure we do this right. I don’t want anything to spoil what we could become if we do this right. I let go of him and step back, wiping my hands on the legs of my work trousers. 

‘’Ize, come home with me. Let’s get out of here before I lose my shit and come in my pants.’’

He laughs softly. ‘’I think you already did.’’ 

He cocks his head and I look down at the wet patch where my cock has leaked through the thin fabric. I’m so fucking hard. I am so fucked. 

‘’Look what you do to me. You kiss me and I lose my shit.’’ 

I have nothing to cover myself with. Nothing to hide. Not that I really care.

He grabs his junk and adjust himself in his trousers. His face all flushed and his lips chaffed and swollen. His hand grabs mine, a confident grip around my fingers.

‘’Take me home then’’ he urges. ‘’Because if you don’t I am taking you home with me.’’

 

The sun has almost set over the asphalt landscape. The yellow and blue IKEA flags flapping in the breeze, and the last stray cars leaving through the barriers. My car is at the very end, down in the corner by the long grass where no one ever parks. I grab the key from my pocket and flick the remote as we walk. He lets go of my hand and starts jumping around. Running in circles with his arms flaying by his side, whooping like a toddler in a playground. 

‘’Get in my car you crazy thing!’’ I shout.  
‘’Just need to get some of these emotions out! ‘’ he screams as he jumps up and down, beaming at me. ‘’I am just too happy. Too much adrenaline. Too much Even in my system.’’ He shakes his arms. Kicks his legs as I run after him, chasing him like we used to when he was innocent and small, and I was young and stupid. 

I chase him with laughter brewing in my lungs, until he lets me catch him so I can scoop him up in a hug. Lean back against my car dragging him with me in my arms. 

His face is full of dimples, his eyes laughing at me. 

‘’Can I kiss you this time? Please?’’

My cheeks are hurting from smiling this much. From being this happy. I realize that I am free. Free to be me, with no games, no pretending to be cooler than I am. No silly phrases and roles we are supposed to play. Isak has seen me at my very worst. At my drunkest and most naked. At my coolest at the top of my game. I don’t have to show him anything but me.

I place my lips against his, just the softest of touches against his lips. Pressing with the tiniest of whimpers escaping my mouth as he breathes with me. Slow tiny breaths as his lips taste mine. As I kiss him like he deserves to be kissed. Slow and sweet and not missing a single beat of his heart. My hands around his face and his hands cupping my neck, he keeps nipping at my lips, as I slowly taste his.

‘’I fucking love you’’, he pants against my mouth. ‘’I know you are not supposed to tell people that until you have known them for a while, but I have loved you almost all my life Even. I am not about to start lying now.’’

I pull him back into my chest, and hold him as tight as I can. 

‘’I love you too Squirt. Always have always will.’’


End file.
